Philippines celebrates as caregiver wins Israel's X Factor

Rose Fostanes a Filipina migrant caregiver living in Israel, celebrates with friends and family in a bar in Tel Aviv, after she won the Israeli X-Factor on January 15, 2014

Celebrations broke out in the Philippines on Wednesday after a Filipina who has spent nearly half her life as a carer overseas won Israel's first "X Factor".

Rose Fostanes, one of the millions of Filipino workers abroad lionised back home and forming a pillar of the country's economy, won the television talent show late Tuesday with a rendition of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" that delighted fans in both countries.

Local television, news websites, social media and even the president lavished praise on the unmarried, openly gay 47-year-old, who has worked abroad for more than two decades -- six of them in Israel -- to support her family.

"We know the situation she was in and we are very proud that she has again given the Philippines pride in the showcase of her talent," President Benigno Aquino's spokesman Edwin Lacierda told reporters Wednesday.

"The Filipino has an innate advantage when it comes to the arts.... It clearly shows that the excellence of the Filipino can be expressed anywhere, everywhere, when they are given the opportunity to show their talent."

Fostanes has been likened by fans to Susan Boyle, the middle-aged Scottish singer whose humble looks and shy demeanour belied a scintillating voice that captivated millions on the television talent show "Britain's Got Talent" in 2009.

Before she entered the competition, Fostanes' day job had been to care for an elderly employer in Tel Aviv -- one of some 10 million Filipinos, about a tenth of the population, who have gone to work abroad to escape poverty and joblessness back home.

Israel's media said her victory had put the spotlight on the country's low-paid migrant workers, among them tens of thousands of Filipinos, who work as carers or in menial jobs.

Fostanes, the only foreign contestant, lives in a crowded apartment in an area inhabited mostly by foreign workers in Tel Aviv.

"Not all workers and cleaners from the Philippines are in a position like this: It's like Cinderella, you know," she told the show in an earlier interview uploaded on YouTube.

But she fretted whether Israel's television audience, who had made her an early audience favourite, would tire of her plain looks and vote her out of the contest in favour of younger, slimmer rivals.

"This is what I'm afraid of, because I don't have the whole package," she said.

But fans were won over. In a live performance watched on television by many of her impoverished countrymen before dawn Wednesday, Fostanes' powerful, soulful singing voice won the judges' nod.

Her ecstatic younger sister, Rose, told Manila television network ABS-CBN: "This is my sister's life dream turning into reality. Who would have thought it would happen abroad?"

Fostanes had blitzed through the earlier rounds with impressive renditions of songs by Tina Turner, Lady Gaga, Prince and Christina Aguilera among others.

Clips of her performances have been drawing tens of thousands of hits since they were uploaded on YouTube this month.

Fostanes' girlfriend Mel Adel had told the station last weekend that she feared her partner's disclosure at the show of the lesbian relationship would harm her chances of winning.

"But I was elated that she did not disown me," Adel said.

Lani Cayetano, mayor of the Manila suburb of Taguig where the singer's siblings live, said: "She is indeed an epitome of hope, her powerful voice touching hearts not only of Israelis, but of all of us."